Nader, Libertarians file for president in Illinois

Tuesday

The campaign of independent presidential contender Ralph Nader and his running mate Matt Gonzalez filed petitions Monday to get on the Nov. 4 Illinois ballot.

The campaign of independent presidential contender Ralph Nader and his running mate Matt Gonzalez filed petitions Monday to get on the Nov. 4 Illinois ballot.

Nader filed more than 50,000 signatures, with a valid 25,000 required for an independent or third-party candidate to get on the ballot as president.

The Libertarian Party also filed for offices including president, vice president and U.S. Senate, submitting nearly 50,000 signatures, party officials said.

But the candidates for president, vice president and U.S. Senate who filed jointly under the Constitution Party banner submitted only 34 pages of petition signatures on the final day of an eight-day filing period, meaning they have far fewer than the 25,000 signatures required.

Objections to third-party and independent petitions can be filed Tuesday through Monday. Those objections can lead to weeks of research of the signatures, with members of the State Board of Elections ultimately deciding if enough valid signatures remain.

Also filing fewer-than-the-required signatures Monday was Bradley Carter, 35, of Peoria, who submitted 15 petition pages to run as a Constitution Party candidate for the U.S. House from the 18th Congressional District.

Carter, who works in the warehouse for Morton Metalcraft — a metal-fabricating company and supplier of firms including John Deere and Caterpillar — said he wants to end free-trade policies he thinks are hurting American industry. The signature requirement for his office is in the thousands, but he said he decided to run less than two weeks ago and was hoping to “fly under the radar.”

Christina Tobin, Nader’s national ballot access and Illinois ballot coordinator, appeared at a Statehouse news conference with others, including Libertarians, who face high barriers to get on ballots in Illinois. She has worked in the past for candidates including Nader who had to deal with Illinois laws that make it much easier for established-party candidates to get on the ballot. For example, this year, Democrats and Republicans running for president in Illinois needed only 3,000 valid signatures.

“I’ve been up against both the Republicans and the Democrats here in Illinois,” said Tobin, of Chicago. “There’s no limits (to) what they will go to to try to keep third parties and independents off the ballot.”

“One of our members,” added Val Vetter of Wilmette, state chair of the Libertarian Party of Illinois, “even remarked jokingly, although probably true — it was easier to get on the ballot in Iraq than it is to get on the ballot in Illinois.”

The Libertarians filed combined petitions for three statewide offices, but two of the people named are considered placeholders because petitions were circulating before former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., and his running mate, Wayne Root, were chosen at a national convention in May to be the presidential and vice presidential candidates.

On the Illinois petitions, Debra Aaron of Chicago and Chris Bennett of Springfield were listed as candidates for president and vice president as the placeholders. Larry Stafford, a truck driver from South Beloit, is the candidate for U.S. Senate and was listed on the petitions.

Also filing Monday for president was a Chicagoan, John Joseph Polachek, but his paperwork, naming his party as the New Party, included just one petition page with no signatures on it.

“Over 95 percent of the people like what I have to say, my passengers in my cab,” he wrote on one of the documents he sent to the elections board. “And that they would vote for me.”

Bernard Schoenburg can be reached at (217) 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.

Third-party candidates haven't had much luck in Illinois

Third-party candidates and independents in Illinois haven’t had a lot of success in statewide races in recent history.

To become an established party in Illinois for elections at all levels, it takes at least a 5 percent showing in an election for governor. The designation, which allows candidates under that party banner to run with reduced signature requirements, lasts at least until the next gubernatorial election.

And in a non-gubernatorial year such as this one, said Steve Sturm, legal counsel to the State Board of Elections, a 5 percent showing by the presidential candidate of a third party would make that an established party for 2010 elections, but just for statewide posts such as the governor and other constitutional offices.

Among third-party or independent candidates in recent history in Illinois:

--Adlai Stevenson III, really a Democrat, ran under the Solidarity Party banner in 1986 to distance himself from a lieutenant governor candidate, Mark Fairchild, who was a surprise Democratic primary winner and follower of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche. Stevenson got 40 percent of the vote that fall.

--Ross Perot got almost 17 percent of the vote for president in Illinois in 1992 as an independent, when the state gave the winner that year, Democrat Bill Clinton, almost 49 percent, and Republican incumbent George H.W. Bush got 34 percent. Perot ran for president again in 1996 under the Reform Party, garnering 8 percent of the Illinois vote as Clinton won another term.

--Ralph Nader, who is running for president as an independent this year, was on the Illinois ballot in 2000 as a Green Party candidate for president, but got less than 2.2 percent of the vote. He ran again in 2004 as an independent, turning in 32,000 signatures, but having to run as a write-in because the State Board of Elections ruled that fewer than 20,200 were valid. He ended up with about 2,400 write-in votes.

--In 1980, former U.S. Rep. John Anderson of Rockford ran for president as an independent, and got about 347,000 votes in Illinois, to nearly 2.36 million for Republican Ronald Reagan and 1.98 million for incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter.

--In 2006, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney of Carbondale got nearly 10.4 percent of the statewide vote, to about 50 percent for incumbent Rod Blagojevich and 39 percent for Republican Judy Baar Topinka. That has made the Green Party an established party for now, and it is why Green candidates filed nominating petitions for offices during the same period as Democrats and Republicans last fall.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
Waynesboro Record Herald - Waynesboro, PA ~ 30 Walnut St. Waynesboro, PA 17268 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service